YP Letters: Case for Brexit continues to get weaker

I FEEL I have to take issue with your Comment entitled ‘Brexit: Time to stop the insults’ (The Yorkshire Post, December 23) and your total lack of even- handedness when I might have expected otherwise from your newspaper.

In truth the headline should have more properly been applied not those who voted to remain, but to those who sought to take a contrary stance, such has been their continuing vitriol as has been apparent through your Letters column over the last few months.

The reason is, of course, quite clear. As long as the debate continues without any kind of clarity on the issues involved, the weaker the case for Brexit becomes. This was always going to be the case. Hence your reliance on the old issues of Commonwealth and Empire and wars fought over 70 years ago which, while we should not forget, the sacrifices made are of little comfort to our children and grandchildren who are being denied a future in Europe and all that that entails by way of education and culture, as they will now be at the end of the queue.

In the same way you harp back to Empire and our Commonwealth which is becoming less meaningful because of continuing corruption and internal strife and run by governments who take our financial “largesse” but continue to laugh in our faces. I do not refer, of course, to the old Commonwealth countries like Australia, Canada and New Zealand who, while they may be open for business, this will be on a largely superficial scale as they now have new and more convenient markets, largely in Asia.

It is a great pity we took what I can only regard as a premature vote on Brexit, when quite clearly Europe has to come to its senses in the near future.

From: Simon Barber, Digley Road, Holmbridge, Holmfirth.

PROFESSOR Danny Dorling argues for a “better politics” (The Yorkshire Post, December 28).

It seems to me he wants the politics of the last 20 years warmed over, arguing for higher taxes and spending as if that is in itself better. Alas for him, higher taxes and spending are not necessarily better.

If we could be sure that higher taxes would mean better public services by a significant margin, maybe we would vote for this, but more than likely it would lead to waste given the capacity for governments to pour money bad schemes e.g. overseas aid budget.

He uses the example of the excellent Swiss health system, stating that it spends twice as much per head than the NHS. Implying we should. This is only true because the costs of the Swiss system are higher than ours – they pay doctors more. In fact on an equivalent cost base, they spend 40 per cent less per head. They also have an individual insurance-based system.

Finally he says that immigration is not a problem – it is given the volume of it. This has led to downward pressure on wages and severe pressure on public services and infrastructure. Does he really think that providing for a city the size of Coventry every year will improve our health and happiness?

From: Shaun Kavanagh, Morley.

TOM Riordan talks of Leeds City Council having “high values”, well, many will likely wonder what LCC’s “low values” are in relation to his reference to openness, honesty and transparency in the midst of the cover-up over those councillors who did not pay their council tax. It is farcical that councillors, having been caught out, then try to excuse their actions.

Stricter rules on postal votes

From: Edward Grainger, Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough.

THE news that a pilot scheme to curb and reduce voter fraud is understandable given the extent of improper practices, particularly in connection with postal voting (The Yorkshire Post, December 27).

As a governance officer for all of my local government ‘career’, I often expressed my concern to the returning officer at almost every election, whether municipal or Parliamentary, that the extensive issue of postal ballot papers was becoming almost unmanageable and therefore difficult to administer.

The scale of the numbers issued has gone far beyond the original concept of the postal voting system which was to provide by post a ballot paper for those voters in a ward or constituency who would be working away on the day of the election or who, because of long-term illness or severe disablement, could not get to their allotted polling station.

The widespread ownership, and use, of private motor vehicles has ensured that those voters who could do so could reach the polling station and then be given assistance from the vehicle to the inside of the polling station.

I am concerned staff inside the polling stations, usually the presiding officer and poll clerk, could be intimidated both inside and outside the station when the voter is asked to produce a form of identity in order to cast a vote or to apply for a postal vote.

Also there is a strong case for putting an end in law to the practice of party supporters outside stations asking electors for their electoral roll number.

These changes need to be amendments to the Representation of the People Act.

From: Jack Brown, Lamb Lane, Monk Bretton, Barnsley.

IDENTITY checks (The Yorkshire Post, December 27) will not prevent election fraud. The case for returning postal votes only to those who are on holiday, working or physically disabled is overwhelming.